Clark was long known for his departing catchphrase, "For now, Dick Clark...so long," delivered with a military salute, and for his youthful appearance, earning the moniker "America's Oldest Teenager."

Clark suffered a significant stroke in late 2004. With speech ability still impaired, Clark returned to his New Year's Rockin' Eve show on December 31, 2005/January 1, 2006. Subsequently, he appeared at the Emmy Awards on August 27, 2006, and every New Year's Rockin' Eve show through the 2011/2012 show.

On April 18, 2012, Clark died of a heart attack at the age of 82.[4][5]

Career

Radio and television

After graduating from high school in 1947, Clark started as an office worker at WRUN-AM in Rome, NY. Almost immediately, he was asked to fill in for the vacationing weatherman, and within a few months he was announcing station breaks. His quick rise may have been helped by the fact that his uncle owned the station and his father managed it.

While attending Syracuse, Clark worked at WOLF-AM, then a country music station. He returned to WRUN for a short time where he used the name Dick Clay.

He went back to his given name and went to work for WFIL, a radio and affiliated television station in Philadelphia. The station decided to follow the trend of announcers playing records over the airwaves. The television station aired a show called Bandstand, an afternoon teen dance show. Clark was given the job as host and replaced Bob Horn.

Clark began his television career at station WKTV in Utica, and was also subsequently a disc jockey on radio station WOLF in Syracuse. His first television-hosting job was on Cactus Dick and the Santa Fe Riders, a country-music program. He would later replace Robert Earle (who would later host the GE College Bowl) as a newscaster.[7]

Clark was principal in pro broadcasters operator of 1440 KPRO in Riverside, California from 1962 to 1982. In the 1960s, he was owner of KGUD AM/FM (later KTYD AM/FM) in Santa Barbara, California.

American Bandstand

In 1952, Clark moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, more specifically to Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania,[8] and resided within the Drexelbrook Community where he was neighbors with Ed McMahon. There he took a job as a disc jockey at radio station WFIL. WFIL had an affiliated television station (now WPVI) with the same call sign which began broadcasting a show called Bob Horn's Bandstand in 1952. Clark was a regular substitute host on the show and when Horn left, Clark became the full-time host on July 9, 1956. The show was picked up by the ABCtelevision network, renamed American Bandstand, and was first aired nationally on August 5, 1957. On that day, Clark interviewed Elvis Presley.[9]

Clark also began investing in the music publishing and recording business in the 1950s. In 1959, the United States Senate opened investigations into payola, the practice of music-producing companies paying broadcasting companies to favor their product. Clark was a shareholder in the Jamie-Guyden Distributing Corporation, which nationally distributed Jamie and other non-owned labels. Clark sold his shares back to the corporation when ABC suggested that his participation might be considered as creating a conflict of interest. In 1960, when charges were levied against Clark by the Congressional Payola Investigations, he quietly divested himself of interests and signed an affidavit denying involvement.[10] Clark was not charged with any illegal activities.

Clark backstage at the 1990 Grammy Awards

Unaffected by the investigation, American Bandstand was a major success, running daily Monday through Friday until 1963, then weekly on Saturdays until 1987. In 1964, the show moved from Philadelphia to Hollywood, California. Charlie O'Donnell, a close friend of Clark's and an up-and-coming fellow Philadelphia disc jockey, was chosen to be the announcer, a position he held for ten years. O'Donnell also announced on many 1980s versions of Clark's Pyramid game show; he continued to work with Clark on various specials and award shows until his death in November 2010.

Clark produced American Bandstand for syndicated television and later the USA Network, a cable-and-satellite-television channel, until 1989. Clark also hosted the program in 1987 and 1988; David Hirsch hosted in 1989, its final year. American Bandstand and Dick Clark himself were honored at the 2010 Daytime Emmy Awards.[11]

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve

In 1972, Clark produced and hosted Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, the first of an ongoing series of specials still broadcast on New Year's Eve.[13] The program has typically consisted of live remotes of Clark in Times Square in New York City, counting down until the New Year ball comes down. After the ball drops, the focus of the program switches to musical segments taped prior to the show in Hollywood, California. The special is live in the Eastern Time Zone, and it is delayed for the other time zones so that they can ring in the New Year with Clark when midnight strikes in their area.

ABC has broadcast the event on every New Year's Eve since 1972 except in 1999 when it was preempted for ABC 2000 Today, news coverage of the milestone year hosted by Peter Jennings. In the more than three decades it has been on the air, the show has become a mainstay in U.S. New Year's Eve celebrations. Before then, Guy Lombardo (a.k.a. "Mr. New Year's Eve"), along with his big band orchestra, the Royal Canadians, had long been the main draw for New Year's Eve broadcasts for radio and, later, for television (on CBS). Watching the ball in Times Square drop on Clark's show was considered an annual cultural tradition for the New Year's holiday for the last decades of his life.

Twice, Clark was not able to host his show. The first time happened at the end of 1999, going into 2000, due to ABC 2000 Today. However, during that broadcast, Clark, along with ABC News correspondent Jack Ford, announced his signature countdown to the new year. He was a correspondent, according to the transcript of the broadcast released by ABC News.[14] Ford had been assigned to Times Square during the broadcast, and thus, Clark's role was limited. Nevertheless, he won a Peabody Award for his coverage. The second time happened at the end of 2004, as he was recovering from his stroke; Regis Philbin substituted as host. The following year, Clark returned to the show, although Ryan Seacrest served as primary host. From 2005 to 2011, Clark co-hosted New Year's Rockin Eve with Seacrest, with his speech improving each year, and his post-stroke role improved each year (the last three years found him splitting time evenly with Secreast in the half-hour leading up to the ball drop.)

Pyramid game shows

Before Pyramid, Clark had two brief runs as a quiz-show host, presiding over The Object Is and then Missing Links. On Missing Links, he replaced his former Philadelphia neighbor and subsequent TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes co-host, Ed McMahon, when the game show switched networks from NBC to ABC; NBC replaced Missing Links with Jeopardy!.

Clark later became host of The $10,000 Pyramid, which premiered on CBS March 26, 1973 (the same day as The Young and the Restless). The show — a word association game created and produced by daytime television producer Bob Stewart — moved to ABC from 1974 to 1980, during which time the top prize was upgraded to $20,000. After a brief 1981 syndicated run as The $50,000 Pyramid, the show returned to CBS in 1982 as The New $25,000 Pyramid, and continued through 1988, save for a three month break. From 1985 to 1988, Clark hosted both the CBS $25,000 version and a daily $100,000 Pyramid in syndication. His daytime versions of Pyramid won nine Emmy Awards for best game show, a mark that is eclipsed only by the twelve won by the syndicated version of Jeopardy!. It also won Clark three Emmy Awards for best game show host.

Clark would return to Pyramid as a guest in later incarnations. He was a guest during the Bill Cullen version of The $25,000 Pyramid (not to be confused with the incarnation Clark himself hosted). During the premiere of the John Davidson version in 1991, Clark sent a pre-recorded message wishing Davidson well in hosting the show. In 2002, Clark played as a celebrity guest for three days on the Donny Osmond version.

Radio programs

Photo of Clark in 1963. His ABC radio show was called "Dick Clark Reports".

Clark also had a long stint as a top-40radio countdown show host. He began in 1963, hosting a radio program called The Dick Clark Radio Show. It was produced by Mars Broadcasting of Stamford, Connecticut. Despite his enormous popularity on American Bandstand, the show was only picked up by a few dozen stations and lasted less than a year. The show proved to be ahead of its time, becoming one of the earliest attempts at radio syndication.

On March 25, 1972, Clark hosted American Top 40, filling in for Casey Kasem. Several years later, Clark would become one of AT40's most enduring rivals. In 1981, he created The Dick Clark National Music Survey for the Mutual Broadcasting System. The program counted down the Top 30 contemporary hits of the week in direct competition with American Top 40. Clark left Mutual in 1986, and Charlie Tuna took over the National Music Survey. Clark then launched his own radio syndication group; the United Stations Radio Network, or Unistar, and took over the countdown program, "Countdown America". It ran until 1994, when Clark sold Unistar to Westwood One Radio. The following year, Clark started over, building a new version of the USRN and a new countdown show: "The U.S. Music Survey". He served as its host until his 2004 stroke.

Dick Clark's longest running radio show began on February 14, 1982. "Rock, Roll & Remember" was a four hour oldies show named after Clark's 1976 autobiography. The first year, it was hosted by veteran Los Angeles disc jockey Gene Weed. Then in 1983 voice over talent Mark Elliot co-hosted with Clark. By 1985, Clark hosted the entire show. Pam Miller served as producer. Each week, Clark would profile a different artist from the Rock and Roll era. He would also count down the top four songs that week from a certain year in the 1950s, 1960s or early 1970s. The show ended production when Clark suffered his 2004 stroke. However, re-runs continue to air in syndication and on Clark's website "dickclarkonline.com".

Beginning in 2009, Clark merged elements of "Rock, Roll and Remember" with the syndicated oldies show, "Rewind with Gary Bryan". The new show was called "Dick Clark Presents Rewind with Gary Bryan". Bryan, a Los Angeles radio personality, serves as the main host. Clark contributed profile segments.

Other television programs

At the peak of his American Bandstand fame, Clark also hosted a 30-minute Saturday night program called The Dick Clark Show (aka The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show). It aired from February 15, 1958, until September 10, 1960, on the ABC television network. It was broadcast live from the "Little Theater" in New York City and was sponsored by Beech-Nut Gum. It featured the rock stars of the day lip synching their hits, just as on American Bandstand. However, unlike the afternoon Bandstand program which focused on the dance floor with the teenage audience demonstrating the latest dance steps, the audience of The Dick Clark Show (consisting mostly of squealing girls) sat in a traditional theater setting. While some of the musical numbers were presented simply, others were major production numbers.

The high point of the show was the unveiling with great fanfare at the end of each program, by Clark, of the top ten records of the coming week.[15] This ritual became so embedded in popular culture that to this day it is satirized nightly by David Letterman. In the 1986 comedy-drama Peggy Sue Got Married, Kathleen Turner's character after being transported back to the spring of 1960 is supposedly watching American Bandstand on television. The clip used in the movie, however, is actually of the Dick Clark Saturday night show, because the teen age audience is not dancing but sitting in a theater. In addition, members of the audience were wearing the "IFIC" buttons based upon the Beech-Nut Gum advertising slogan of the late 1950s ("It's FlavorIFIC"). Beech-Nut sponsored the Clark Saturday night show and sponsored the top 10 countdown board on American Bandstand.

From September 27 to December 20, 1959, Clark hosted a thirty-minute weekly talent/variety series entitled Dick Clark's World of Talent at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday nights on ABC. A variation of producer Irving Mansfield's earlier CBS series, This Is Show Business (1949–1956), it featured three celebrity panelists, including comedian Jack E. Leonard, judging and offering advice to amateur and semi-professional performers. While this show was not a success, during its nearly three month duration, Clark was one of the few personalities in television history on the air nationwide seven days a week.[15] Clark has been involved in a number of other television series and specials as producer and performer. One of his most well-known guest appearances was in the final episode of the original Perry Mason TV series ("The Case of the Final Fadeout") in which he was revealed to be the killer in a dramatic courtroom scene. In 1973, he created the American Music Awards show, which he produces annually. Intended as competition for the Grammy Awards, in some years it gained a bigger audience than the Grammys due to being more in touch with popular trends.

Clark attempted to branch into the realm of soul music with the series Soul Unlimited in 1973. The series, hosted by Buster Jones, was a more risqué and controversial imitator of the then-popular series Soul Train and alternated in the Bandstand time slot. The series lasted for only a few episodes. Despite a feud between Clark and Soul Train creator and host Don Cornelius, the two would later collaborate on several specials featuring black artists.

He hosted the short-lived Dick Clark's LIVE Wednesday in 1978. In 1984, Clark produced and co-hosted with Ed McMahon the NBC series TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes. The series ran through 1988 and continued in specials hosted by Clark (sometimes joined by another TV personality) into the 21st century, first on NBC, later on ABC, and currently on TBS (the last version re-edited into 15-minute/filler segments airing at about 5 A.M.). Clark and McMahon were longtime Philadelphia acquaintances, and McMahon praised Clark for first bringing him together with future TV partner Johnny Carson when all three worked at ABC in the late 1950s. The "Bloopers" franchise stems from the Clark-hosted (and produced) NBC "Bloopers" specials of the early 1980s, inspired by the books, record albums and appearances of Kermit Schafer, a radio and TV producer who first popularized outtakes of broadcasts.

For a period of several years in the 1980s, Clark simultaneously hosted regular programs on the 3 major American television networks: ABC (Bandstand), CBS (Pyramid) and NBC (Bloopers) and in 1993, he hosted Scattergories. In 1990 and 1991, he hosted the syndicated television game show The Challengers, which only lasted for one season. In 1999, along with Bob Boden, he was one of the executive producers of Fox's TV game show Greed, which ran from November 5, 1999, to July 14, 2000, and was hosted by Chuck Woolery. At the same time, Clark also hosted the Stone-Stanley-created Winning Lines, which ran for six weeks on CBS from January 8, 2000 – February 12, 2000.

Other media appearances

Clark was featured in the 2002 documentary film Bowling for Columbine. He was criticized for hiring poor, unwed mothers to work long hours in his chain of restaurants for little pay. The mother in particular works over 80 hours per week and is unable to make rent and gets evicted which results in her having her son stay at his uncle's house. At his uncle's house the boy finds a gun and brings it to school where he shoots another first grader. In the documentary footage featuring Clark, Michael Moore tries to approach him to inform him of the welfare policies that allow for these conditions, and questions him about the people he employs and the tax breaks he takes advantage of, in employing welfare recipients; Clark refuses to answer any of Moore's questions, shutting the car door and driving away.

Clark also appeared in interview segments of another 2002 film, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which was based on the "unauthorized autobiography" of Chuck Barris. (Barris had worked at ABC as a standards-and-practices executive during "American Bandstand's" run on that network.)

In the 2002 Dharma and Greg episode "Mission: Implausible," Greg is the victim of a college prank, and devises an elaborate plan to retaliate, part of which involves his use of a disguise kit; the first disguise chosen is that of Dick Clark. During a fantasy sequence that portrays the unfolding of the plan, the real Clark plays Greg wearing his disguise.

He also made brief cameos in two episodes of the The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In one episode he plays himself at a Philadelphia diner, and in the other he helps Will Smith's character host bloopers from past episodes of that sitcom.

Stroke and appearances since

Initial news

On December 8 of that year, the then 75-year-old was hospitalized in Los Angeles after suffering what was initially termed a minor stroke. Clark's spokeswoman, Amy Streibel, said that he was hospitalized but was expected to be fine.

However, on December 13, 2004, it was announced that Clark would be unable to host his annual New Year's Rockin' Eve broadcast that had aired for all but one year since 1972 (in 1999, New Year's Rockin' Eve was preempted with the Peter Jennings-hosted ABC 2000 Today though Clark did perform his traditional countdown, but had to do with Jack Ford, as ABC had him stationed in Times Square during the broadcast).[14] For the 2004 show, Regis Philbin was the substitute host,[18] and during the show on December 31, 2004, he gave his best wishes to Clark.[18]

Return to television

Having not been seen in public since his stroke, Clark announced in a statement that he would be back in Times Square for the annual tradition, bringing on Hilary Duff and Ryan Seacrest as co-hosts, in addition to the latter being co-executive producer. Also in the same August 2005 press release, it was announced that Seacrest would eventually take over as the sole host should Clark decide to retire, or be unable to continue.

On December 31, 2005, Clark made his return to television, returning to the Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve broadcast.

During the program, Clark remained behind a desk and was shown only in limited segments. Though Clark had noticeable difficulty speaking, he was able to perform his famous countdown to the new year.

On air, he stated, "Last year I had a stroke. It left me in bad shape. I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. It's been a long, hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I'm getting there." Before counting down to 2006, he mentioned he "wouldn't have missed this for the world."

Reaction to Clark's appearance was mixed, reported CNN.com. While some TV critics (including Tom Shales of The Washington Post, in an interview with the CBS Radio Network) felt he was not in good enough shape to do the broadcast, stroke survivors and many of Clark's fans praised him for being a role model for people dealing with post-stroke recovery.[19]

Subsequent appearances

On August 27, 2006, Clark appeared on NBC's telecast of the 2006 Emmy Awards. He was introduced by Simon Cowell after the show paid tribute to his successful career that has spanned decades. He was shown seated behind a lectern, and although his speech was still slurred, he was able to address the audience and introduce Barry Manilow's performance.

For the 2006–07 and 2007–08 ABC New Year's Eves, Clark still exhibited noticeably slurred and somewhat breathless speech, but improved from previous years, in addition to using his arms again.[citation needed] For the 2008–09 broadcast, he increased his hosting duties to the point where he split duties roughly evenly with Seacrest during the half-hour leading up to the ball drop. For the 2009–10 countdown show, he spoke with improved verbal expression, as well as improved head and arm dexterity, but incorrectly counted down, counting "...14, 12, 10, 11, 10, 9...". In previous years following the stroke, Clark had only hosted the countdown and one brief segment.

Clark was honored at The 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards on CBS TV. It was a tribute to his 40 years hosting American Bandstand.

Clark returned for the 2010–11 New Year's Rockin' Eve and executed a perfect countdown with twenty-four seconds left on the clock.[20]

For the 2011–12 New Year's Rockin' Eve, Dick Clark once again performed the countdown (although slightly rushed around the 0:06 mark to stay in time), this time with seventeen seconds left on the clock.

Theaters

"Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater" opened in Branson in April 2006, and nine months later, a new theater and restaurant entitled "Dick Clark's American Bandstand Music Complex" opened near Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. In October 2007, since nearby residents complained about the outside concerts performed at the new complex, it has been emptied of its contents and the box office closed temporarily. After eighteen months of extensive new renovations it was reopened for indoor concert performances.

Personal life

Clark was married three times. His first marriage was to Barbara Mallery in 1952; the couple had one son, Richard ("R.A.", or "Rac"), and divorced in 1961. He married Loretta Martin in 1962; the couple had two children, Duane and Cindy, and divorced in 1971. His third marriage, in 1977 to Kari Wigton, lasted until his death.

Youthful appearance references

Before his stroke, Clark's perennial youthful appearance, despite his advancing years, was a subject of jokes and commentary in the popular culture, most notably his nickname of "America's Oldest Living Teenager".

One of Gary Larson's The Far Side cartoons has the caption, "Suddenly, on a national talk show in front of millions of viewers, Dick Clark ages 200 years in 30 seconds."

In Episode 320 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, John Carradine – playing a mad scientist in the movie The Unearthly – is trying to get another character to consider eternal life when he says, "Suppose you could wake up every morning and see your face untouched by time.” Crow replies, "Like Dick Clark?"

In the Police Squad! episode "Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh)," Dick Clark, appearing as himself, purchases Secret Formula Youth Cream from street snitch Johnny the Shoeshine Boy.[22] In the film Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Kathleen Turner, who has time-traveled back to circa 1960, is watching Dick Clark on American Bandstand with her sister and says "That man never ages." Her sister doesn't seem to understand what she means.